Vine is an emerging answer to the question, "Where can postmodern adults in Lakeland explore Christianity in their own language?" Some adult members and staff from First Presbyterian Church got together in the Fall of 2006 to talk about adding a new worship service to the Sunday morning schedule...but the conversation quickly progressed from worship styles and times to the people of our community. They started to explore a hunch that, for more and more spiritually interested adults, there are hundreds of churches in Lakeland (over 500, actually), but few which presented the ancient roots of Christianity in a way which they could understand or freely participate in. So, those FPC folks got out of the big brick building with the tall steeple on Lake Hollingsworth and into the coffee shops, restaurants, and parks of Lakeland. They began to meet a lot of people who wanted to know more about Jesus but weren't too wild about going to church.
They looked around the country and noticed that a movement was taking root in American culture in which house churches and emerging missional worship communities were charting a new course for how people defined "church." Less institution, more community. Less programs, more serving. They decided to be the first to bring that movement to an established church in Lakeland. The result, so far, is Vine.
Over the summer of 2007, a core group began to come together for worship gatherings every other Sunday night in the Youth Hall at FPC. It had plenty of rough edges, and it looked, sounded and felt like nothing any of them had experienced before, but it began to click. Even though there was no advertising beyond word of mouth, and it was the middle of summer when half of Lakeland leaves town, the community began to grow. People in the community heard about it through friends, and just showed up. Young families came, so a nursery and an interactive activity time for grades K-3rd were started. The community adopted a local elementary school and started collecting backpacks and school supplies for needy students. People started to work together to find creative ways to tell others about Vine.
Meanwhile, FPC refurnished and refitted its Fellowship Hall to house Vine, turning a gymnasium into a multi-sensory, interactive, intimate-feeling worship space. Websites, blogs and podcasts were developed as forums for information, media downloads, and interaction. Volunteer teams were trained to run technology, greet people, serve coffee and rolls, and setup and put away the worship space each week.
Vine began weekly worship gatherings on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. on August 26, 2007. Vine begins as a community where adults, college students, and families can experience Jesus Christ and "church" in a whole new way, interact with each other in an atmosphere of exploration and acceptance, and work together to extend love, peace and justice to the people of Lakeland and the world.
